DO BREAK THE RULES

While having pre-baby conversations to agree on your approach to the humps ahead is healthy, so is being flexible once you actually face those challenges.

“One thing babies don’t do is live by rules,” says psychologist Taryn McGowan. “You may find that while you wanted to breastfeed, this hasn’t worked out for you. Switching to bottle feeding needn’t be seen as failure but rather adaptation. It’s about deciding what’s best for Baby, but also what’s best for you,” she says. Sticking to “the plan” that in reality doesn’t work for you once your baby is born can make your anxiety levels soar and set you up for postnatal depression. In the case of new parenthood, there are no rules, and the ones you set up for yourself can certainly be broken, Taryn advises.